Field of the Invention
The application relates to passivation of ultra-high k films. In particular, the present invention concerns novel processes for depositing electrodes on top of ultra high-k films.
Description of Related Art
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is generally a self-limiting process, whereby alternated pulses of reaction precursors saturate a substrate surface and leave no more than one monolayer of material per pulse. The deposition conditions and precursors are selected to generally provide self-saturating reactions, such that an adsorbed layer in one pulse leaves a surface termination that is non-reactive with the gas phase reactants of the same pulse. A subsequent pulse of different reactants reacts with the previous termination to enable continued deposition. Thus, each cycle of alternated pulses typically leaves no more than about one molecular layer of the desired material. The principles of ALD type processes have been presented by T. Suntola, e.g. in the Handbook of Crystal Growth 3, Thin Films and Epitaxy, Part B: Growth Mechanisms and Dynamics, Chapter 14, Atomic Layer Epitaxy, pp. 601-663, Elsevier Science B.V. 1994, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.